


reuniting the close

by armethaumaturgy



Series: Multiverse #379 [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Blueberror, Error Sans - Freeform, FGOD Error, Gen, Haphephobia, Reunions, Underswap Papyrus, character driven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28221492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armethaumaturgy/pseuds/armethaumaturgy
Summary: Error finally asks BB a question that has been nagging him for a while. And discovers how it feels to do a good deed.
Series: Multiverse #379 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023511
Comments: 7
Kudos: 60





	reuniting the close

The Anti-void was filled with sound.

Things littered the expanse of white, from seats woven from blue strings to a magical oven softly humming. Error was used to his own only having a hammock and the tangled web of souls and puppets overhead, but he had to admit it felt less oppressive like this. Neither him nor BB were ones for overabundance or cluttering, but the few times the voices in his head had ceased, if only for a few moments, he almost wished them to return, to drown out the deafening silence again. BB didn't have voices that constantly argued in his head, so his relief was obvious, even if he tried to hide it. Template apparently never thought of it, since he didn't spend much time in the Anti-void, much less alone.

It brought up an interesting question, one that Error couldn't help but ask as BB cooked tacos on the oven that Error had ~~stolen~~ procured from Underfell. Old habits die hard, and the thought of asking Template to create one didn't even occur to him until the next day.

"You're an Underswap Sans, aren't you?"

BB looked up from stirring his meat mixture, cocking his head to the side. "Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering, cause you stay here an awful lot. Why don't you go back to your universe?"

BB turned back, so Error couldn't see his expression, but the tension in his shoulders was palpable. "I can't let Papy see me like this," he muttered, almost too quiet to hear, nothing but a breath. But this was the Anti-void and nothing could mask a sound here. "It's better he thinks I'm gone."

Error frowned. That didn't really sound like a swap's line of thought. What he knew of Underswap was mostly through Blue, when he kept the shortcake as a prisoner — until Fate grew sick of his incessant attempts to befriend her tool and forced him to get rid of him in favor of doing his _job_. Blue had been overjoyed to see his brother again.

"I dunno, I think he'd be pretty happy," he said. "You're still his brother."

BB's shoulders hunched up further. His voice sounded more like static and less like words. "You really think so?"

"If I had a brother..." He didn't, or if he did have one, he couldn't remember him. "I think it'd hurt to lose him. If he was alive, I'd want him to come back."

BB didn't say anything, just kept up his cooking, so Error, thinking the conversation was over, returned to his knitting. Time was arbitrary in here, but it was a while until BB came over, a plate of tacos in hand. He fidgeted by the hammock, looking from Error to the plate and back, over and over.

"Do you..." he mumbled, nothing more than a breath, and Error knew this was important to him, knew on some deep level, so the half-finished sweater was set aside haphazardly and the plate taken from BB's hand.

He stared up at the other glitch; Error didn't rush him. He wasn't good with this emotion crap, but he tried. BB had tried for him, so it was only fair he tried in return, right? That was how it worked, right? 

When he reached out and placed his hand onto BB's shoulder, there was no pain, no stream of glitches enveloping his phalanges. BB stared at his hand, apparently just as surprised by this as Error was.

It took another long minute (or an hour) of silence for BB to speak up again. "Do you really think… he'd still like me?"

Error wasn't sure of many things, but this was one of those he was. "Yeah."

BB was trying, but it was obvious those were tears gathering in his sockets. "Would you come with me?"

"Right now?"

BB glanced at the tacos and then grinned. It looked nowhere near his usual smile, but Error decided not to comment on it. "I thought, maybe… he'd like a taco, too. To know… that it's me."

Error's hand, still on BB's shoulder, was starting to burn. He took it off and handed the plate back to hide it. "Sounds like a plan. Come on, shrimp."

As much as BB seemed on board, when Error opened a portal, eyelights rowing the lines of code to see if it was the right one, he froze up. Slow and steady, Error had to remind himself. He'd always done everything fast, rushed by circumstances, by his adversaries, by Fate. He never had the luxury of slowing down, not for himself, much less anyone else. But BB deserved it.

Finally, they stepped through the portal. It spat them in the living room — lights on, TV running, and Papy laid on the couch. Empty cigarette packs littered the coffee table, the floor, even the couch itself. It looked like he hadn't moved for a while, but the moment the portal fizzed out, he was upright and staring at them.

"Papy…?" BB breathed, nigh silent. He was gripping the plate in his hands like a lifeline.

Papy gaped like he was seeing a ghost. He looked BB up and down, took in the blackened bones, the starry markings, the clothes, the eyes, the glitches that surrounded him like an angry swarm of bees. "Sans…?"

For all his attempts not to cry so far, BB burst into tears immediately, the plate falling from his hands as he all but threw himself at his brother. Error barely caught the china in his strings, rationalizing that BB would be upset if the one thing that got him to come here got destroyed. Papy, meanwhile, caught BB and held him like one might a delicate doll, like his brother could and would disappear at any moment, any time he blinked.

"Oh, stars… it is you, isn't it? You're alive… you're _safe_ ," Papy blabbered, voice lingering on the thin line between a sob and a laugh. He crushed BB to his chest as he cried, voice warbled by static and glitched stuttering.

Error looked away, staring at the wall instead, because it felt _wrong_ to watch this private moment. As unseemingly as possible, he placed the plate onto the table and made himself a portal back home. Funny, when did he start thinking of this Anti-void as a home? He didn't feel like delving into it.

BB and Papy had gotten past the tears stage by then and sat on the messy couch, Papy talking too fast about something that eluded Error. Just as he was stepping through, he caught BB giving him a teary-eyed, grateful look.

His soul gave a violent twitch within his ribcage, followed by almost glitching itself out of it, and Error had to stand still, waiting for it to pass. Was this what doing a good deed felt like, or was it just how happy BB had looked? That expression was going to haunt Error's thoughts forever now.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to regret cajoling BB into this. Not of it made him happy.


End file.
